11:30am

So you are an artist. Writing brilliant songs. Yet, nobody buys physical media anymore. Actually, there's so much brilliant music out there for free - which means, no money from listeners the easy way around.

That's why you are told to go DIY. To get your revenues from other sources. Meaning to license with commercial partners. In commercials, games, TV and movies. Sounds good.

But how to identify whom to contact? How do I present my music? Where? What's the best way - writing commissioned works or licensing original songs?

What exactly is the newcomers starter package in commercial licensing? Any guidelines to follow? Apart from that, is it better license my songs with a collecting society first or does Creative Commons maybe work better? Is there any consistent workflow?

Finally, what differences are there for artists vs. composers approaching licensed music?

1:00pm

"Ownership is not as important as it once was. Very likely, in the near future, I won’t “own” any music, or books, or movies. Instead I will have immediate access to all music, all books, all movies using an always-on service, via a subscription fee or tax. I won’t buy – as in make a decision to own — any individual music or books because I can simply request to see or hear them on demand from the stream of ALL. I may pay for them in bulk but I won’t own them. The request to enjoy a work is thus separated from the more complicated choice of whether I want to “own” it. I can consume a movie, music or book without having to decide or follow up on ownership"[Quote: Kevin Kelly]

Is this really where we are heading to? And when? The reality right now is, when we leave our wifi zone, we need to go back to listen to the stuff we own, we bought or just simple: we have stored on our harddrives / CD's. How long will it take until we could get anything from the cloud? What is the state of the art? In this session its not about ranting about GEMA or majors. Of course, it's important to show the current status. But we would like to give a more wider future perspective and to show the effect of streaming possibilities to overall sales (360° models).The discussion should also include the "utopia" of selling products with other models like micropayment and pay where you want and how you want on every platform. Thesis: We would spend much more money if we just had the possibility.

1:00pm

The idea behind this presentation/panel is to present tools which are helping artists and labels to create a digital strategy and buzz for their releases. In times where pure availability is not enough anymore this presentation with an additional panel will help to get ideas on certain tools which are helping to get yourself heard in the digital jungle. The panel will feature experts who are going to cover the perspectives of artists, labels, bloggers and users.

3:15pm

The topic of Digital Distribution in music is a massive one. Meanwhile, it's rather a situation or state of time, not that much of a simple "topic". A separate conference on this would have been perfect. This session, however, goes about 90min.

When focusing Digital Distribution in terms of out-of-the-box solutions following a more commercial approach vs. DIY and Direct-to-Fan: What's important with services like BandCamp, Audiomagnet, Topspin, TuneCore, Nimbit? Which services can and must artists be provided with?

Also, can a DIY/D2F approach be the right one for everyone? Does it provide suitable tools for everyone? Is there anything special about DIY, D2F that commercial channels like iTunes, Napster, labels do not offer at all? In particular, it's worthwhile discussion what pros & cons there are compared to common distribution.

Yet another aspect in analysing distribution channels is the discussion that has arisen between Tom Silverman (Tommyboy Entertainment) and Jeff Price (TuneCore). No charts, no breaking – what does it take to become a „breaking artist“?

Do we need other scales than some charts measuring questionable figures of sales? Any artist selling his songs or maybe even giving them away for free on his site - where are these numbers? Why should he or she with several 10.000 downloads for free not be considered a "breaking" artist? And why are they preferring an independent presentation compared to a commercial platform?

Returning to digital distribution services themselves - are artists satisfied with how their work is presented and sold? Regarding browsing & searching - do current solutions support the customer?

Concluding it all, where is digital distribution heading to? Is there a tendency towards independent artists, acting on their own, taking over the market as entrepreneurs themselves?

1:30pm

Music and brand cooperation is widely spread and applies for a wide basis.

But what's Brand Entertainment? Just some nice package or serious - and fruitful - business? How do brands and composers benefit? Is it just some new tag for sponsoring, or do we find a whole new concept developed for today's needs?

If we find Brand Entertainment to be a successful new form of business... what's the next step in evolution?

3:15pm

Sector mechanisms to reward investment in talent and try and reduce the competition imbalance between the big and the small are almost common practice in many sports such as football. Experts from sport and music discuss the possibilities of adapting these solidarity mechanisms and talent development 'transfer fees' to the music sector.

3:15pm

The US remains biggest entertainment market in the world - yet, that's not reflected by presence of EU labels. But what is required to be successful for European rights holders? How to enter by physical & digital distribution? Most of all - how do I make it to the live market, let alone manage to reign?